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Maholm's first career shutout leads Pirates past Astros

Apr 25, 2007 - 4:12 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Paul Maholm ended a personal drought and one at PNC Park for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Maholm pitched a three-hitter for his first career complete game and Jason Bay drove in two runs as the Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 3-0, in the first game of a nine-game homestand.

Ronny Paulino belted his first home run of the season for Pittsburgh, which had lost its first four home games and six straight to Houston here.

"It's nice to get a win here in fromt of the home fans," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "We know we have to play well here to get where we want to go."

Maholm (1-2) yielded first- and fourth-inning singles to Craig Biggio and an infield hit to Humberto Quintero in the sixth during his three-hit, 99-pitch effort that took just 1 hour, 57 minutes. The second-year pro walked one and struck out four against a club that entered batting .307 against lefthanders.

"(Maholm) was terrific tonight," Tracy said. "He was around the plate with everything he threw, he got early-count swings. He had a very good sinker and his changeup was very good.

"His delivery was great tonight. Offensively, we got just enough to win. You really hope that a game like this spearheads his development into the very special pitcher we know he can be."

The win was the 24-year-old lefthander's first since September 15 against the New York Mets.

"Everything was working," Maholm said. "I got early-count ground balls, and that's the goal every time I go out there. It worked out. The ninth inning is definitely different territory for me."

Bay doubled to center field in the first inning off Houston starter Woody Williams, plating Jack Wilson from second base. Wilson hit a one-out double to right.

Bay entered batting just .262 with nine RBI, including 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

"It's no mystery the middle of our lineup has struggled," Bay said. "And usually when that happens you've got one or two guys picking up the slack, and it just so happened we all went into a funk at the same time so it was kind of hurting. I kind of picked them tonight. It was nice to see it happen."

Wilson led off the third inning with another two-base hit to left field and scored on a single by Bay for a 3-0 lead.

Paulino, who entered batting .182 with four RBI in 55 at-bats, homered to center field in the second frame. The 26-year-old was a pleasant surprise last season, batting .310 with six homers and 55 RBI as a rookie in 2006.

"I felt good today," Paulino said. "I was seeing the ball pretty good. It made me feel good.

"I was hitting the ball so badly. I'm finally starting to feel good again. I'm getting my approach back."

Woody Williams (0-3) pitched well for Houston in the loss, yielding three runs and nine hits in seven innings. He struck out two and did not walk a batter.

"We stunk tonight, absolutely stunk," Houston manager Phil Garner said. "It was very bad game. It looked like we had no clue what we were doing tonight.

"You don't take anything away from a complete-game shutout, but we didn't do a very good job tonight."